Whistleblowers, military witnesses, researchers, journalists, and investigators who have shaped the UAP and paranormal disclosure landscape. Each profile documents known claims, evidence provided, and chronological timeline.
Credibility assessments are editorial notes based on corroborating evidence and community consensus — not endorsements. Claims marked as unverified remain so until independently confirmed.
Current or former government, military, or intelligence personnel who have come forward with claims about classified UAP programs, often through protected disclosure channels.
Former NGA Officer / UAPTF Representative
David Grusch is a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) official who became the most prominent UAP whistleblower in modern U.S. history when he alleged that the U.S. government is concealing a decades-long program to retrieve and reverse-engineer non-human technology.
Former Pentagon AATIP Director
Luis Elizondo is a former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent and Pentagon official who claims to have led the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) — a classified DoD initiative to study UAP reports. After resigning from the Pentagon in 2017 in protest over lack of institutional support, he became one of the most prominent public advocates for UAP transparency.
Former Special Operations Pilot / Claimant
Jake Barber is a former U.S. military special operations pilot who surfaced in 2024 claiming to have personally participated in classified operations to retrieve anomalous craft. His account is among the more specific and operational of recent UAP claimants.
Congressional UAP Advocate / Disclosure Organiser
Matthew Brown has been closely associated with congressional UAP disclosure efforts, working alongside legislators including Rep. Tim Burchett to push for greater transparency and legislative protections for UAP whistleblowers.
Active or former military personnel who directly observed UAP incidents during operations and have gone on record with their accounts.
Retired U.S. Navy Commander / Nimitz Pilot
David Fravor is a retired U.S. Navy Commander and experienced F/A-18F pilot who led the flight element that intercepted the now-famous "Tic Tac" object during a training exercise off the coast of California in November 2004. The encounter is one of the most thoroughly documented UAP cases in history, supported by radar data, pilot testimony, and authenticated gun camera footage.
Former U.S. Navy Lt. / Americans for Safe Aerospace
Ryan Graves is a former U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot who reported frequent, repeated encounters with unidentified objects during training operations off the U.S. East Coast in 2014–2015. Unlike single-incident witnesses, Graves describes a sustained pattern of encounters across an entire squadron — making his account one of the most operationally significant on record.
Retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. / Nimitz Witness
Alex Dietrich is a retired U.S. Navy Commander who was flying as the second aircraft in David Fravor's element during the 2004 USS Nimitz Tic Tac incident. Her independent account corroborates Fravor's observations and adds important perspective as a witness who stayed at altitude rather than descending to engage the object.
Retired USN Senior Chief / Nimitz Radar Operator
Kevin Day was a Senior Chief Petty Officer and radar operator aboard the USS Princeton during the 2004 Nimitz carrier strike group deployment. He is the individual who first detected and tracked the Tic Tac objects on radar — days before the pilot intercept — making his account foundational to the entire Nimitz incident.
Former USN Petty Officer / Princeton Crew
Gary Voorhis served aboard the USS Princeton during the 2004 Nimitz incident and has provided corroborating accounts of unusual events surrounding the encounter — including alleged confiscation of radar data recordings and AEGIS system data by personnel who arrived by helicopter shortly after the incident.
Retired Rear Admiral / Former NOAA Head
Tim Gallaudet is a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and former Acting NOAA Administrator who has emerged as a senior government voice advocating for UAP transparency. He has been vocal about his belief that the U.S. government is withholding significant information from the public and that the phenomenon warrants serious scientific investigation.
Current or former officials who have advocated for transparency, supported disclosure efforts, or played a role in shaping UAP policy.
Former Dep. Asst. Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
Christopher Mellon is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and former staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has been one of the most influential figures in bringing UAP into mainstream political discourse. He helped coordinate the release of authenticated military UAP videos and has been a sustained advocate for congressional oversight.
Retired U.S. Army Colonel / UAPTF Officer
Karl Nell is a retired U.S. Army Colonel who served as the Army's representative to the UAP Task Force (UAPTF). He publicly endorsed David Grusch's credibility following Grusch's 2023 disclosure and has made his own carefully worded statements about the significance of the UAP phenomenon.
Former DIA Director / UAPTF Director
Jay Stratton is a former Defense Intelligence Agency official who served as director of the UAP Task Force (UAPTF) — the government body that preceded AARO. He is one of the most senior officials to have formally investigated UAP on behalf of the U.S. government, and his guarded public statements have attracted significant attention in the disclosure community.
Academic researchers, scientists, and investigators who study UAP phenomena through empirical and scientific methods.
Professor of Pathology, Stanford University
Garry Nolan is a professor of pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine and one of the world's leading immunologists. He has applied rigorous scientific methodology to the study of alleged UAP experiencers and individuals claiming exposure to anomalous materials — finding measurable neurological differences in a subset of subjects.
Professor of Science, Harvard University / Galileo Project
Avi Loeb is a former chair of the Harvard astronomy department and one of the most prominent mainstream scientists to take the possibility of extraterrestrial technology seriously as a scientific hypothesis. He founded the Galileo Project to systematically search for evidence of extraterrestrial technological artefacts using observatory networks and material analysis.
Computer Scientist / UAP Researcher / Author
Jacques Vallée is a French-American computer scientist, venture capitalist, and author who has been one of the most rigorous and influential researchers in UAP for over sixty years. He was the inspiration for the character Lacombe in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and has worked with scientific institutions and government bodies on UAP-related research.
Investigative reporters and documentarians who have broken major UAP stories, obtained classified footage, and pushed the phenomenon into mainstream coverage.
Investigative Journalist / NewsNation
Ross Coulthart is an award-winning Australian investigative journalist who has become one of the most prominent reporters on the UAP disclosure story. His 2021 book "In Plain Sight" and subsequent reporting for NewsNation — including the Jake Barber interview and extensive coverage of congressional UAP hearings — have broken significant new ground.
Investigative Journalist / Author
Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist and author whose 2017 New York Times article on the Pentagon's secret UAP programme — co-authored with Ralph Blumenthal — is widely considered the most consequential piece of UAP journalism in the modern era. She also co-authored the 2023 article introducing David Grusch to the public.
Investigative Journalist / KLAS-TV Las Vegas
George Knapp is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist based in Las Vegas who has covered UAP for over three decades. He is best known for breaking the Bob Lazar story in 1989 and for his sustained coverage of the government's relationship with the phenomenon, including reporting on Bigelow Aerospace's BAASS contract and Skinwalker Ranch.
Documentary Filmmaker / Investigative Journalist
Jeremy Corbell is an independent documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist who has released multiple pieces of authenticated U.S. military UAP footage and footage of alleged UAP encounters. His work has forced official government acknowledgments of previously classified or unreleased video evidence.
Individuals widely known in UAP culture whose claims are heavily disputed, lack corroborating evidence, or whose credibility has been formally questioned.
Self-described Former S-4 Scientist
Bob Lazar is a self-described former physicist who in 1989 claimed to have worked at a classified facility called "S-4" near Area 51, Nevada, where he says he was employed to reverse-engineer propulsion systems from recovered alien spacecraft. His claims introduced numerous concepts — Element 115, anti-gravity propulsion, craft storage — that have become foundational to modern UFO culture.
Founder, The Disclosure Project
Steven Greer is a former emergency room physician who founded the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) and the Disclosure Project. His 2001 National Press Club press conference — assembling 20+ military and government witnesses — was a landmark moment in UAP public advocacy. His subsequent work has become increasingly controversial.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel / Author
Philip Corso was a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and former member of President Eisenhower's National Security Council staff who, in 1997, published "The Day After Roswell" — a memoir in which he claimed to have overseen the reverse-engineering of technology recovered from the 1947 Roswell crash for seeding into private industry.
Researchers, demonologists, and field investigators who have documented hauntings, poltergeist activity, and other paranormal phenomena — often at significant personal cost to their reputations.
Demonologists / Paranormal Investigators
Ed and Lorraine Warren founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952 and investigated over 10,000 cases across five decades. Their most famous cases — Amityville, Annabelle, and the Perron family haunting — formed the basis of the Conjuring film universe.
Paranormal Researcher / Ghost Hunter
Harry Price (1881–1948) was Britain's most prominent paranormal investigator of the early 20th century. His decade-long investigation of Borley Rectory — dubbed "the most haunted house in England" — established the template for systematic paranormal field investigation and remains one of the most documented hauntings in history.
President Emeritus, Ghost Club / Author
Peter Underwood (1923–2014) was President of The Ghost Club — the world's oldest paranormal research organisation, founded 1862 — for over 30 years. He investigated more than 2,000 haunting cases across the UK and authored over 50 books on the paranormal, making him one of the most prolific researchers in the field's history.
Parapsychologist / Author / Investigator
Hans Holzer (1920–2009) was an Austrian-American parapsychologist who authored 119 books on the paranormal and conducted thousands of investigations over five decades. He coined the term "the new age" and was among the first researchers to bring paranormal investigation to mainstream American television.
Scientists, researchers, and field investigators who have devoted careers to the study of animals and entities unknown to mainstream science — from Bigfoot to the Mothman.
Professor of Anatomy & Anthropology, Idaho State University
Dr. Jeff Meldrum is a tenured professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University whose expertise in primate locomotion and foot morphology led him to become the world's foremost academic authority on Sasquatch evidence. His 2006 book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science is considered the definitive scientific treatment of the subject.
Filmmaker / Sasquatch Researcher
Roger Patterson (1926–1972) filmed what became known as the Patterson-Gimlin film on 20 October 1967 at Bluff Creek, California — a 59.5-second 16mm film of a large bipedal figure that is the most scrutinised and debated piece of cryptid evidence ever recorded. Despite decades of attempts, no one has conclusively demonstrated it to be a hoax.
Author / Fortean Investigator
John A. Keel (1930–2009) was an American journalist and investigator who conducted first-hand field research into some of the most significant paranormal and cryptid events of the 20th century. His 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, based on his personal investigation of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, documented not only Mothman sightings but a wave of associated phenomena — UFOs, Men in Black encounters, and prophetic communications — in the months before the Silver Bridge collapse.
Cryptozoologist / Director, International Cryptozoology Museum
Loren Coleman is an American cryptozoologist, author of over 40 books, and the founder and director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine — the world's only institution dedicated to cryptozoological artefacts and evidence. Active since the 1960s, he is the most widely cited living authority on cryptid encounters globally.
Editorial note: Project Strange presents these profiles for documentary purposes. Claims by individuals in the Whistleblower and Controversial sections have not been independently verified by this platform. Congressional testimony under oath is noted where applicable. The presence of a profile does not constitute endorsement of any claim.